YouTube Releases Enhanced Tools for Video Creators Including Live Streams

YouTube is looking to level the playing field for smaller publishers and has released a bunch of new features to help optimize and promote video content, as well as manage a channel. So if you’re account is in good standing (meaning very few, if any, copyright violations) then you can expect to see live streaming, custom video thumbnails, external annotations and series playlists coming soon.

Live streaming for accounts with more than 100 subscribers

In the next few weeks, all accounts that are in good standing and have over 100 subscribers will be able to live stream video content. Previously this feature was only available to larger publishers with over 1000 subscribers. If you’re interested in signing up for this, check for the “enable” button on your Accounts Features page.

Choose your best thumbnail

Make your videos stand out by using a custom thumbnail. This is really important when trying to get people to watch your video from places like Facebook or Twitter, so use catchy images that are representative of what the viewers will see (like prominent screen shots from the video).

Drive traffic to your merchandise

Want people to buy your new song for example? You can now add annotations to link external websites or stores to your videos, to provide better calls-to-action.

Series Playlists for related videos

Now you can group videos into a series playlist, to help guide your audience to other related videos of interest. Just mark your playlist as a “series” and YouTube will show viewers those videos in order with a link to the whole playlist.

Are you excited about these new YouTube features? Plan to do any live video blogging?